Surge leads $2.5m round of Australia-based AI customer service bot

Brainfish founders Ajain Vivek (left) and Daniel Kimber / Photo credit: Brainfish

Brainfish, a customer support platform based in Sydney, raised US$2.5 million via its recent fundraising round.

Surge, the scale-up program of VC firm Peak XV Partners, led the round. Macdoch Ventures, Black Sheep Capital, and MadPaws CEO Justus Hammer also invested.

A platform designed to help companies resolve customer queries, Brainfish was established by SiteMinder alumni Daniel Kimber and Ajain Vivek Thankaswamy in April 2023.

They created Brainfish based on their own struggles with customer support, which “hasn’t changed in decades,” noted Kimber, who also serves as the startup’s CEO. “While tooling is better, people today want quick answers that are accurate and contextualized,” he added.

To that end, the company provides AI tools that allows companies to handle large volumes of customer queries. Brainfish says its service can provide answers in under two seconds while giving the businesses’ customer experience team real-time insights generated from client concerns.

Since starting operations a year ago, Brainfish has gained over 300,000 users and serves Australia, the US, and Singapore. Its clients include diverse companies like Mad Paws and Airtasker, which are both listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.